Jerry Yang: Yahoo hiring Bain to cut costs

When all else fails, bring in more management consultants. We just got a copy of a memo Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang emailed employees yesterday:

as we look ahead and to position us for success in 2009, we’re continuing the work already underway to get fit as an organization: actively looking for ways to make process and structural changes to our business that will allow us to work more efficiently, with more scale. we’ve enlisted the help of Bain & Co. to work with the leadership team on identifying ways to leverage our strengths, and to improve and accelerate our performance.

You know it's Jerry, because there aren't any capital letters. Yang doesn't say "layoffs" or "cuts," but it's pretty clear what he means by "getting fit as an organization." The full memo:

yahoos, it's time for another update. as a company, we've made some great progress this year. while it hasn't been easy, especially in light of the challenges we’ve faced (not to mention the current downturn in the macro economic environment), we've accomplished a tremendous amount and we’re all working hard to continue executing on the company’s strategic plan. as we look ahead and to position us for success in 2009, we’re continuing the work already underway to get fit as an organization: actively looking for ways to make process and structural changes to our business that will allow us to work more efficiently, with more scale. we’ve enlisted the help of Bain & Co. to work with the leadership team on identifying ways to leverage our strengths, and to improve and accelerate our performance. we all know and experience parts of yahoo! where we can do better and be more agile in a competitive marketplace. this is consistent with what you told us in the YEES survey conducted in may – we need to find easier ways to work within yahoo!, and more importantly, create an even better experience for our customers and users. each one of us will play an important role in this process. in the coming weeks, we’ll be soliciting your input and feedback. i want to know how we can improve the way we work with each other, and the way others work with yahoo!. i know that yahoo! can benefit greatly from more discipline among all departments and functions, across the company. longer term, getting fit now will enable us to be more successful moving forward. thanks, jerry